Sunday, December 18, 2016

Honduran international Alberth Elis announced today on his Instagram page that he was leaving Mexican club Monterrey. The 20 year old Elis, a member of Honduras' 2016 Olympic team had only joined Monterrey this past year and had featured four times for the club since joining in August from Olimpia in Honduras. Reports out of Mexico and Honduras tonight are reporting that the 20 year old is heading to MLS.

Honduras reports are suggesting that one of those MLS teams interested is Sporting KC, Diez is reporting that the MLS club would pay a portion of the salary while Monterrey would pay the rest. On the surface that sounds like it would be a loan move for the forward. Reportedly another MLS team interested is the Houston Dynamo, both clubs mentioned as rumored landing sports for Elis have Honduran internationals currently on the roster, Roger Espinoza in KC and Boniek Garcia in Houston. The report also states that the decision on where Elis will play could be made as early as Wednesday of this week, which could potentially go with this Robb Heineman's tweet from a few days ago about (Brian) Bliss "zero-ing in."

The 20 year old is a forward who scored four goals in Olympic qualifying for Honduras ahead of the 2016 games, and then scored twice for Honduras in Brazil, including once in a quarterfinal win over South Korea. Looking at some highlights from his time with the Olympic team it appears that Elis can play both in the middle and the wide positions in a three forward system, which is something that KC could certainly use on the roster right now. With the great winger purge happening in KC this offseason and Diego Rubio out until at least the summer recovering from an ACL tear KC needs players that can play on the wing as well as a center forward back up for Dom Dwyer if he gets hurt or needs a break. On the surface, Elis would seem to fill both of those needs.

While young, Elis' talent is quite apparent from what I've been watching of him and would certainly be an interesting signing if KC can pull it off.